Season of Christmas, John 1:29-34

The choir of Westminster Cathedral sing the Agnus Dei from Palestrina’s Missa Brevis: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
These are the words, in the Eucharist, with which we recognise Jesus at the breaking of the bread. Yet there are other times and places too where the presence of Jesus might go unrecognised. Here and now, for instance. How hard do I have to try, to see Him present in this place, in the people around me now, in their faces, and in mine?

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John.

In our reading today we hear John the Baptist. He had been urging people to live good and faithful lives and to turn to God. He had been baptising people as a sign of repentance. Yet it was only after he had been preaching for some time that he realised that Jesus was the one he was sent to proclaim.

Have there been times in your life when you have done something that you felt was right and only later fully realised quite why it was right and a good thing for you to do? Can you recall that experience, what it felt like, before you realised, and after?

Listen again to the reading. Notice how John the Baptist saw God present in the world.

If you are aware of things in your life that don’t make much sense at the moment you might ask the Spirit of God to give you some sense of how God is working in your life. Talk to Jesus, or to God as Father, or Mother. Talk freely, like one friend to another.